WALTERBORO, S.C. — Alex Murdaugh’s friend and former law partner described a chaotic scene at the Murdaugh family house the night of the murders, and the day after.
Defense witness Mark Ball testified Wednesday that he raced to the Murdaughs’ Colleton County home the night of June 7, 2021, when he received a call from Murdaugh to come to the house after his wife, Maggie, and youngest son, Paul, were shot to death on the property.
Law enforcement vehicles and first responders were already all over the property when Ball arrived. But they were soon joined by a parade of friends and well-wishers coming to see Murdaugh, raising concerns from the attorney, said Ball, who works for Parker Law Group, formerly known as Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth & Detrick, or PMPED.
“I said, ‘I think the sheriff wants this (entrance) blocked off,’ but people just kept pilling in,” Ball said. “More and more people showed up.”
Ball’s testimony at Murdaugh’s double-murder trial Wednesday at the Colleton County Courthouse underlined the defense’s argument that investigators mishandled the crime scene during the initial investigation of Paul and Maggie’s murders, potentially missing evidence that could have exonerated their client and pointed to another suspect.
Ball, walking near the crime scene that night, told defense attorney Jim Griffin that he saw water dripping off the roof of the kennels’ feed room onto Paul’s covered body on the ground.
“I thought it was just disrespectful,” Ball said. “Paul was a good young man. Frankly, it pissed me off.”
Ball said he also noticed a jug of Clorox in the bed of an unmarked truck at the scene, something he thought was odd enough that he took a photo of it. The truck was later found to belong to C.B. Rowe, the Murdaugh family’s groundskeeper.
With nothing much for so many people to do at the house that night, Ball said he and other friends began cleaning up the kitchen and putting food away — some put pots in the sink and others in the fridge. The family’s housekeeper noted in her Feb. 10 testimony for the state that it was unusual for the previous night’s dinner to be put away when she arrived the next day.
Ball returned the next day, June 8, 2021, and testified that he noted there were still shotgun pellets from the gun that killed Paul in the feed room, as well as what he believed to be a part of Paul’s skull. He said he later noticed he had blood on his clothes after being at the shed.
“I asked the agent there, and he said, ‘We’ve got all we need,’” Ball said. “I felt like walking across his grave. It’s one of those things you just don’t do.”
The defense also presented evidence from crime scene expert Kenneth Zercie that investigators could have used more advanced techniques to preserve the scene and take more detailed analysis, including lifting fingerprints or examining shoe impressions found in the feed room. At one point, defense attorney Dick Harpootlian critiqued video of investigators at the scene the night of the murders.
“I wouldn’t have walked into the room. You stand back and make your observation,” Zercie said, adding that deputies appeared not to wear protective foot coverings when they moved through the scene.
Prosecutor John Meadors, in cross-examination, pointed out that Zercie had not read the S.C. Law Enforcement Division’s report on the crime scene, but only reviewed photos and material provided to him by the defense.
After reading through the SLED agent’s analysis of the shoe prints that Meadors provided him on the stand, Zercie said, “I have no problem with it, given their limitations.”
Ball also on Wednesday weighed in on the dispute of whether an emotional Murdaugh told investigators, “I did him so bad” or “They did him so bad,” in an interview after the murders. “It sounds like ‘they’ to me,” Ball said.
But Ball wasn’t an entirely helpful witness for Murdaugh’s defense.
Ball said at various times after the murders, he heard Murdaugh tell different versions of the story, at one time saying he went to check Maggie’s body first, and at other times Paul’s. When lead prosecutor Creighton Waters asked Ball about a video that seems to include Murdaugh’s voice at the kennels shortly before the shooting, Ball asserted he’d heard the recording and believed it was Murdaugh’s voice without the tape being played again.
Ball’s assessment of Murdaugh changed when Murdaugh was fired in September 2021 for allegedly stealing money from the law firm and clients, and said that colored his view of his now-former colleague afterward.
“The person I thought I knew appeared to love his family very much,” Ball said at one point. “After Sept. 3, I’m not sure I know that person.”
The next day, Sept. 4, 2021, Ball received a call that Murdaugh had been shot on the side of the road in what was later revealed to be a botched attempted suicide.
“The first thing I said was, ‘Don’t tell me that jackass killed himself,’” Ball said. When told Murdaugh had been shot by someone else, he said his initial reaction was, “I don’t believe that.”
Reflecting on Murdaugh’s actions, Ball said of Murdaugh, “He’s torn down an entire legacy. For 34 years, this was the only law firm I ever worked for. I put everything into it, it’s the only thing my kids have ever known, and it’s gone. We had to change the name because of all this financial stuff.”
“But I’m not saying he’s done what he’s accused of,” he added.
How serious was boat case threat to Murdaugh?
Dawes Cooke, the Charleston attorney who was representing Murdaugh in a civil suit over the fatal 2019 boat crash that killed Mallory Beach, said Murdaugh was scheduled to appear in a hearing on turning over his financial information to the plaintiff three days after Paul and Maggie were murdered.
Plaintiff’s attorney Mark Tinsley, who is representing the Beach family, previously testified he believed he was close to getting access to that information, and prosecutors allege that Murdaugh’s fear of his financial misdeeds being exposed motivated him to kill in order to postpone having to turn over any information.
“It’s meant to worry defendants, it’s very common,” Cooke said of Tinsley’s motion. “I won’t say that we weren’t concerned, but there had already been some other settlements, felt like this was a defensible case. It was not an existential threat to Alex.”
The lawsuit against Murdaugh is ongoing, and Tinsley was seen sitting in the courtroom Wednesday directly behind the prosecution table.
Will Murdaugh testify?
Griffin indicated Wednesday morning that Murdaugh may take the stand in his own defense this week.
Griffin sought guidance from Judge Clifton Newman on how much Newman would allow prosecutors to delve into Murdaugh’s alleged financial crimes on their cross-examination.
Waters hit back in courtroom arguments, arguing the state should have free rein to question Murdaugh on any aspect of the case.
“These are matters that go right to the heart of the credibility and extensive dishonesty of the defendant,” Waters said.
Newman said he would not issue an order to preemptively block prosecutors from asking any particular questions, but offered to go over Murdaugh’s Fifth Amendment right against incriminating himself before the defendant takes the stand.
Later on Wednesday, jurors heard from the defense’s eighth witness Barbara Mixson, the housekeeper for Murdaugh’s parents. She testified that she spoke to Murdaugh the day of the murders and asked him to come visit his mother, Libby, who was upset after his father, Randolph, had been taken to the hospital earlier that day.
Meadors noted on cross-examination that Mixson had not mentioned that conversation when he had previously spoken to her. She said she couldn’t recall when she had discussed the conversation with anyone else.
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